CINCINNATI —

The Bengals will keep their same uniform for their matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend.

White jerseys, white pants with black stripes and black socks. The team will keep their signature orange helmets for the game.

It's the same jersey/helmet combination the team wore last year against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.

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The Bengals defeated the Buffalo Bills 27-10 in the divisional round of the playoffs. Now, players and fans turn their sets to Kansas City for the second year in a row.

This time though, the betting odds show a near-dead even split between the two teams.

According to ESPN, the opening odds favored the Chiefs by 3 points over the reigning AFC Champions, but after thirty minutes of betting, the odds shifted to favor the Bengals by 1 point. At the end of the day, the odds settled on the Chiefs by 1 point.

The Bengals are running a 10-game winning streak into the game, including a 27-24 victory against the Chiefs at Paycor Stadium in December. The Chiefs have also not lost a game since then.

The Bengals have gone 8-1 in the white jersey/orange helmet combo since unveiling it last year.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

Two unlikely friends, one a Chiefs fan and one an Eagles fan, will be sitting together at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

John Gladwell and Billy Welsh first met each other while serving together in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

“We did not like each other while we were in,” Gladwell said. “He was 17, he was young, he was too enthusiastic. I just wanted to go home. I wanted out,” he added.

“He was a jerk,” Welsh said of Gladwell.

But that dynamic all changed when Welsh reached out on social media in desperate need of a kidney and Gladwell responded.

“I was shocked, when he said he was a match and he was going to be in town next week, I cried,” Welsh said. “Never in a million years would I have ever thought that dude would’ve given me a kidney,” he added.

At the time, Gladwell not only thought about Welsh, but his very young son who was about 2 years old, close to the same age as one of his grandchildren, when the kidney donation took place.

“I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself if I could do something but didn’t. I wanted him to have dad going to Eagles games, Phillies games, Flyers, 76ers all of that. I wanted him to be able to experience all of that with his dad,” Gladwell said.

After that kidney donation in October 2020, Gladwell faced his own health crisis.

About a year ago, COVID sent Gladwell to the hospital’s intensive care unit with stage four kidney failure.

“I was in a pretty pickle,” he said.

It took Gladwell nearly a month recover.

“I’m so thankful that he pulled through, that both kidneys are still functioning,” Welsh said.

Now the two men who didn’t like each other in the Marine Corps will have a once in a lifetime trip together.

Even though they’re rooting for different teams, their bond is now much bigger than football.

“He’s family,” Gladwell said.

“He’s my hero,” Welsh said.

While the two men will be making their first trip to the Super Bowl, Gladwell’s wife Randi will be returning to Phoenix.

Nine years ago, she was there for several months getting treatment for ovarian cancer which spread to her kidney.

Given a 7% chance at survival, Randi will ring her bell Saturday morning for being cancer free.

CINCINNATI — Fans cheered on as the Bengals loaded up on buses Saturday afternoon and left Paul Brown Stadium en route for Arrowhead Stadium ahead of the AFC Championship game on Sunday.

The Bengals face the Chiefs Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Kansas City.

As the Bengals took on the Tennessee Titans in their first playoff game in decades, fans donning orange and brown flooded the stadium; many plan to do it again in Kansas, loading up to follow the team across the plains.

Others plan to stay close to home, organizing watch parties all over Cincinnati to cheer on the team.

WATCH: The Bengals depart for Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

Loud, wild and crazy are just a few words, of many that describe the atmosphere at Arrowhead Stadium and the 76,000 screaming fans inside.

“We expect it to be really loud. We're talking about it throughout the week," Bengals Joe Burrow said.

For Bengals signal caller Burrow, walking into a stadium that holds the Guinness world record for being the loudest doesn't faze him.

“You know in the SEC, it seems like every single week every stadium is really loud. There's hundreds of thousands of people this one is going to be similar,” Burrow said.

Tiger Stadium, where Burrow played college ball, holds 26,000 more fans than Arrowhead, but doesn't get nearly as loud. LSU hit 130 decibels back in 2007 while Arrowhead and Chiefs Kingdom set the benchmark at 142 decibels.

“We're going to have to be great with our communication, our non-verbal communication just like every week on the road,” Burrow said.

Across the sideline, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes says Chiefs Kingdom will be a factor to Sunday's outcome.

“Arrowhead is pretty loud. I don't think you can get around that and I'm sure it'll be pretty loud this weekend. They're a great football team. They're coming in trying to win a pretty big game, but I'm glad we're at Arrowhead and we're gonna use our crowd to our advantage and try to find a way to get a win,” Mahomes said.

Former Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Oilers legend Curley Culp died Saturday, according to a statement from his family. Culp was 75 years old.

"On behalf of our family and with a broken heart, I announce the passing of my husband, Curley Culp early this morning. We respectfully ask for privacy at this time," his wife Collette Bloom Culp wrote on his Twitter account.

Earlier this month, Culp announced on his Twitter account he was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

"To my followers, family and friends I have stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Do donate to your local cancer organizations so this dreaded disease is eradicated. Love life, family and friends. Folded hands pray to God for all physical and spiritual healing. Love, Curley Culp HOF#13," he wrote.

Culp was drafted out of Arizona State University where he was an All-American lineman, by the Denver Broncos in the 1968 NFL draft, and then traded to the Kansas City Chiefs before his rookie season.

After winning a Super Bowl championship and making the Pro Bowl in two of his first six seasons with the Chiefs, Culp was traded to the Houston Oilers in 1974. In Houston, Culp was moved to the nose tackle position and excelled under legendary coach Bum Phillips, making the All-Pro team his first year there and being elected to the Pro Bowl for four straight years.

Culp played a season and a half with the Detroit Lions between 1980-81, before retiring from the league.

The 14-year NFL veteran was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013, after finishing his legendary career with 68.5 credited sacks in 179 career games.

"The entire Pro Football Hall of Fame family mourns the passing of Curley Culp. He was a wonderful man of great integrity who respected the game of football and how it applied to everyday life," Jim Porter, President of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said in a statement on the museum's website.

"Curley's humility and grace were always apparent. He loved the Hall of Fame — always proudly wearing his Gold Jacket as he visited Canton many times following his election in 2013," the statement continued. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Curley's wife, Collette, and their entire family during this difficult time. The Hall of Fame will forever guard his legacy. The Hall of Fame flag will be flown at half-staff in Curley's memory."

In its statement, the museum quoted Culp on football's applications off the field:

"I have learned that football is not just a sport, but a life lesson in what it means to be a team player," it quoted him as saying. "I have learned how pain can build character and endurance and believe that life itself is like playing a very long and exciting football game where every play can determine the outcome."

Groundskeeper George Toma, 91, has prepared the fields for every Super Bowl played. He recently gave sister station KMBC a sneak peek of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Toma was part of this year's preparation, from stripping the previous field, laser grading and bringing in new sod."When you have a Super Bowl on natural grass, you have to start a sod 18 months ahead of the game," he explained. "So this sod has been growing on the farm in Georgia for 18 months."Next up: painting the end zone logos for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ed Mangan, NFL Field Director, described the respect Toma has earned through his experience."He's the guy who was at Super Bowl I. None of us were," he said. "He is just a walking history book."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With less than a week before Super Bowl LV kicks off in Tampa Bay, the coronavirus pandemic continues to loom large.

On Monday, ESPN senior NFL writer Adam Schefter tweeted that two Kansas City Chiefs players, wide receiver Damarcus Robinson and center Daniel Kilgore have been placed on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list.

The designation was due to possible exposure to a close contact.

The pair now enter a protocol that could still leave them in position to play Sunday.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said none of the players have tested positive for the virus. If the two continue to test negative they should be able to play Sunday.

This story originally reported by Sam Hartle on KSHB.com.

Pressure is mounting for the Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs to end the popular tradition of fans breaking into a “war chant” while making a chopping hand motion designed to mimic the Native American tomahawk.

A coalition of Native American groups has put up billboards in Kansas City to protest the Tomahawk Chop and Chiefs’ name.

The Kansas City Indian Center shared an image of the billboards on their social media accounts. One reads "change the name and stop the chop," and uses the hashtag "#EndRacism" while specifically calling out the Chiefs team and the National Football League.

Another group, Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality, is planning a protest outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the site of Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The chant and arm movement symbolizing brandishing a tomahawk, began at Florida State University in the 1980s, and was later adopted by fans of the Chiefs, and other teams with Native American mascots.

The Chiefs made some changes in the fall, barring headdresses and war paint and making a subtle change to the chop.

“They think that that somehow helps, and they are still playing that ridiculous Hollywood Indian song, which is such a stereotypical Indian song from like old Cowboy movies or something. I don’t know how they feel that that made any difference at all,” Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center told the Associated Press.

Chiefs president Mark Donovan said barring face paint and headdresses from its stadium was a “big step.”

To keep the Super Bowl as a "neutral site," the National Football League has informed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that they cannot fire their cannons after touchdowns or big plays.

That's according to a statement the Bucs released on Twitter Tuesday.

"The firing of the cannons after big plays is a tradition that defines what it means to be a Buccaneer fan and serves as a signature element of our home game experience at Raymond James Stadium," the team said. "However, we also acknowledge and understand the NFL's position with regards to maintaining the integrity of a neutral site atmosphere for Super Bowl LV. While the cannons may not fire in their typical fashion, we look forward to showcasing parts of our tradition while working within the league's guidelines."

The Bucs, who are the first-ever team to play in a Super Bowl that they are also hosting, are set to play against the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 7.